Tag Archives: Mercury gas station

Roundup: Safe Homes, Mercury Gas, Gulls, More


Now through Sunday (August 30), the Westport Domestic Violence Task Force is collecting supplies for the 2 Domestic Violence Crisis Center safe houses that serve area residents.

Besides providing confidential shelters for victims of intimate partner violence and their children, the DVCC offers assistance with basic needs like food, clothing and personal items, along with counseling, legal services, transportation assistance, children’s advocacy, weekly play-based children’s programming focused on self-esteem, healthy communication, referrals to community resources and economic advocacy, including budget development and assistance with job searches and resumes.

Children living in the safe houses need several items for the new school year:

  • New backpacks
  • Notebooks
  • Pens and pencils
  • Graphing calculators
  • New or lightly used Chromebooks
  • Diapers (sizes 4-7).

To arrange ontactless pickup, email Task Force co-chair Jillian Cabana wdvtf06880@gmail.com.

If you or someone you know needs assistance, call 888-774-2900 or click here.


It’s been a few months. But the renovation project for the Mercury gas station at the Post Road/Bulkley Avenue North corner is done.

It still looks like a gas station. But it’s a lot nicer than the previous version. And the prices still seem lower than most others in town.

Mercury gas station (Photo/Seth Schachter)


Early Tuesday morning, Bart Stuck was walking on Soundview Avenue, toward Compo Beach. He saw dozens of gulls — maybe 100 — circling nearby.

When he got to the garbage can near the Soundview lot, he saw the problem. A gull had landed, then caught its webbed feet on the wooden slats. It hung beak down on the side.

Bart grabbed the 2 feet, pulled the gull up, and placed it on the sand. It shook itself off, then flew away. All the other gulls left too. 

Bart was amazed that several passersby had walked by, and done nothing. He was glad to help.

Let’s hope the next time he has a picnic, the gulls return the favor — and leave him and his food alone.

Not Bart’s gull.


And finally … as Hurricane Laura slams into the US, we’re thinking of everyone in it path.

And The Ugliest Gas Station Is …

It’s not easy making a gas station look good.

Especially a lower-tier brand, with cut-rate prices.

But at least the Mercury station — on the Post Road just east of Stop & Shop, by the Southport line — had a handsome line of trees behind it. They shielded some of the big parking lot behind it, near Michaels.

The Mercury gas station then …

No longer.

The other day, most of those trees were cut down.

Now Mercury is definitely one of the ugliest looking gas stations in Westport.

… and now. This is the view from the Michaels parking lot. (Photo/Seth Schachter)

But first prize goes to the former Mobil Self-Serve, next to Barnes & Noble. It’s been shut for over a year.

The landlord decided it wasn’t worth making mandatory upgrades to the tanks, along with corresponding improvements to the canopy, pumps and store.

(Photo/Bob Weingarten)

But at least they didn’t chop down the trees.